Electrical slide switches are well known in the art. In such switches slider elements which are connected to an actuator establish contact between selected terminals that are individually mounted in a terminal board which may be the base or bottom of the switch structure.
In switches of this type the actuators must be retained for sliding movement within the switch housing. This is usually achieved by a cap which is mounted over the top of the switch housing with means being provided through the cap for easy manual manipulation of the actuator. The cap may be suitably removably secured to the housing. However, in some conventional prior art switches the casing is a boxlike structure provided with a number of resilient detent bars in its opposed side surfaces for engagement with selected recesses in sides of the switch base member. In such cases the detent member is movable with the casing so that contact with selected terminals is achieved by engagement of the detents with selected recesses.
Obviously, such a conventional structure has drawbacks. For example, a casing might be accidentally disengaged from a base when a detent is located between recesses. Recesses may accumulate collections of foreign matter and thus prevent positive action of the detent mechanism.
In another conventional switch structure a separate metal cap is attached to the base by downturned side walls having inwardly bent tabs underlying the base. This structure is not easily disassembled.
In still another prior art structure side walls on the cap are provided with divergently angled tabs which are adapted to interlock with portions of side walls on the base. This structure requires a special assembling operation to bend the tabs into interlocking engagement with the base and is not easily disengageable.
The prior art teaches several other detent means for insuring selected engagement of the switch slider with the switch terminals, all of which appear to be relatively intricate or complicated or inefficient in operation, as exemplified by the first conventional switch discussed above. Others utilize separate metal springs or pluralities of pins and slots for the purpose.